CABBAGE [FRAGRANT WATERLILY]

(Castalia odorata; Nymphaea odorata of Gray) Water-lily family
Flowers - Pure white or pink tinged, rarely deep pink, solitary,
3 to 8 in. across, deliciously fragrant, floating. Calyx of 4
sepals, green outside; petals of indefinite number, overlapping
in many rows, and gradually passing into an indefinite number of
stamens; outer row of stamens with petaloid filaments and short
anthers, the inner yellow stamens with slender filaments and
elongated anthers; carpels of indefinite number, united into a
compound pistil, with spreading and projecting stigmas. Leaves:
Floating, nearly round, slit at bottom, shining green above,
reddish and more or less hairy below, 4 to 12 in. across,
attached to petiole at center of lower surface. Petioles and
peduncles round and rubber-like, with 4 main air-channels.
Rootstock: (Not true stem), thick, simple or with few branches,
very long.
Preferred Habitat - Still water, ponds, lakes, slow streams.
Flowering Season - June-September.
Distribution - Nova Scotia to Gulf of Mexico, and westward to the
Mississippi.
Sumptuous queen of our native aquatic plants, of the royal family
to which the gigantic Victoria regia of Brazil belongs, and all
the lovely rose, lavender, blue, and golden exotic water lilies
in the fountains of our city parks, to her man, beast, and insect
pay grateful homage. In Egypt, India, China, Japan, Persia, and
Asiatic Russia, how many millions have bent their heads in
adoration of her relative the sacred lotus! From its center
Brahma came forth; Buddha, too, whose symbol is the lotus, first
appeared floating on the mystic flower (Nelumbo nelumbo, formerly
Nelumbium speciosum). Happily the lovely pink or white "sacred
bean" or "rose-lily" of the Nile, often cultivated here, has been
successfully naturalized in ponds about Bordentown, New Jersey,
and maybe elsewhere. If he who planteth a tree is greater than he
who taketh a city, that man should be canonized who introduces
the magnificent wild flowers of foreign lands to our area of
Nature's garden.
Now, cultivation of our native water lilies and all their hardy
kin, like charity, begins at home. Their culture in tubs, casks,
or fountains on the lawn, is so very simple a matter, and the
flowers bloom so freely, every garden should have a corner for
aquatic plants. Secure the water-lily roots as early in the
spring as possible, and barely cover them with good rich loam or
muck spread over the bottom of the sunken tub to a depth of six
or eight inches. After it has been filled with water, and
replenished from time to time to make good the loss by
evaporation, the water garden needs no attention until autumn.
Then the tub should be drained, and removed to a cellar, or it
may be covered over with a thick mattress of dry leaves to
protect from hard freezing. In their natural haunts, water lilies
sink to the bottom, where the water is warmest in winter.
Possibly the seed is ripened below the surface for the same
reason. At no time should the crown of the cultivated plant be
lower than two feet below the water. If a number of species are
grown, it is best to plant each kind in a separate basket, sunk
in the shallow tub, to prevent the roots from growing together,
as well as to obtain more effective decoration. Charming results
may be obtained with small outlay of either money or time.
Nothing brings more birds about the house than one of these water
gardens; that serves at once as drinking fountain and bath to our
not over-squeamish feathered neighbors. The number of insects
these destroy, not to mention the joy of their presence, would
alone compensate the householder of economic bent for the cost of
a shallow concrete tank.
Opening some time after six o'clock in the morning, the white
water lily spreads its many-petalled, deliciously fragrant,
golden-centered chalice to welcome the late-flying bees and
flower flies, the chief pollinators. Beetles, "skippers," and
many other creatures on wings alight too. "I have named two
species of bees (Halictus nelumbonis and Prosopis nelumbonis) on
account of their close economic relation to these flowers," says
Professor Robertson, who has captured over two hundred and fifty
species of bees near his home in Carlinville, Illinois, and
described nearly a third of them as new. Linnaeus, no doubt the
first to conceive the pretty idea of making a floral clock, drew
up a list of blossoms whose times of opening and closing marked
the hours on its face; but even Linnaeus failed to understand
that the flight of insects is the mainspring on which flowers
depend to set the mechanism going. In spite of its whiteness and
fragrance, the water lily requires no help from night-flying
insects in getting its pollen transferred; therefore, when the
bees and flies rest from their labors at sundown, it may close
the blinds of its shop, business being ended for the day.
"When doctors disagree, who shall decide?" It is contended by one
group of scientists that the water lily, which shows the plainest
metamorphosis of some sort, has developed its stamens from petals
- just the reverse of Nature's method, other botanists claim. A
perfect flower, we know, may consist of only a stamen and a
pistil, the essential organs, all other parts being desirable,
but of only secondary importance. Gardeners, taking advantage of
a wild flower's natural tendency to develop petals from stamens
and to become "double," are able to produce the magnificent roses
and chrysanthemums of today; and so it would seem that the water
lily, which may be either self-fertilized or cross-fertilized by
pollen-carriers in its present state of development, is looking
to a more ideal condition by increasing its attractiveness to
insects as it increases the number of its petals, and by
economizing pollen in transforming some of the superfluous
stamens into petals.
Scientific speculation, incited by the very fumes of the student
lamp, may weary us in winter, but just as surely is it dispelled
by the fragrance of the lilies in June. Then, floating about in a
birch canoe among the lily-pads, while one envies the very moose
and deer that may feed on fare so dainty and spend their lives
amid scenes of such exquisite beauty, one lets thought also float
as idly as the little clouds high overhead.
LAUREL or SMALL MAGNOLIA; SWEET or WHITE BAY; SWAMP LAUREL or